24. November 10

You are never too old...

Two weeks ago my oldest turned 8. So we had a party. And she got presents. All of them very nice, but one of them I couldn't put out of my hands: This colouring book from Joelle Jolivet.

Wonderful illustrations, both for grown ups and children to enjoy. I had to have it as well, so I ordered one (from Amazon, after I found that my local book store unfortunately didn't have them in stock anymore) got my crayons out, and now we sit together side by side. Me and my girl. Whenever there is a quiet moment we are colouring, comparing, enjoying each other's creativity as we add our own interpretation to these illustrations.

And crayons are only one medium really. Think of ink, watercolours, collages of paper or fabric, grabbing a fine liner and filling the blanks with doodles or patterns. The possibilities are endless, and the paper is of such a nice, thick quality that it will actually play along with all of these materials!

So, I re-discovered colouring books for myself again, and immediately looked for more nice ones. Here is an outtake of what I found:

Left: A doodle book from Doodlers Anonymous . The fun here is that 29 different artists are represented with a colouring doodle - all with their own style. Right: Labor Ateliergemeinschaft has brought out a whole series of books which combine colouring and drawing. The (very funny) illustrations are only partly done and leave room for your own fantasy on how to finalize them.

The following ones are probably widely known in the US, but they are new to me:

All via Amazon. All lovely patterns. The snowflakes are clever because they are all mirrored: You can cut them out after colouring and then glue them together with a contrasting paper in between or these small square foam stickers to give them some extra dimension.

Let nobody tell me again that colouring books are suffocating (a child's) creativity ;) it's just heartless illustrations, printed on bad paper that could do that if you ask me!